"A wise and frugal government which shall restrain menfrom injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." (Thomas Jefferson)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Wish I could say that it won't be rubber stamped as it is so far out of the mainstream of America, but the delegates at the Convention are mostly from the hard right this time so its passage will be a slam dunk. Any hope of seeing this defeated is slim to none IMHO! Once it is passed on Monday night, I will be able to say that the Republican Party just left me because I think this Platform in an insult to women, minorities, and anyone who can think for themselves.

Looks like the RNC Chairman Priebus just told Romney it is time to suck it up because this GOP Platform is not his platform but that of the Republican Party. Never heard that before but there is a lot I have never heard before since the Koch Brothers installed Priebus as the RNC Chair. The Chair might as well of said the Platform is for the Vice Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, the darling of the hard right.

Doubt if Romney expected this to happen when he made the decision to go hard right to get their votes. Now he has to live with their hard right platform. Must admit that this was the first time I have ever seen a GOP Chairman tell a candidate it is not their platform but the Republican Party Platform. Presidential candidates always have a lot of input. Doesn't look like this was the case in 2012.

Now the next question is who is going to govern the Country if they win (not happening)? Romney or Ryan? Would Romney be the ceremonial President while Ryan does all the policy? Sure looks like that is the direction it is going. This GOP Platform is so out of touch with mainstream Americans that it would be laughable if they were not serious. The hard right has gone off the cliff with this Platform. Every last Republican running for Congress in the House or Senate should be asked if they support this Platform.

One Senate Candidate, Scott Brown of MA, is definitely not supporting the Abortion Plank as he rebuked that hard right plank last night. I didn't think a lot of Republican candidates would run on that Plank but then I didn't think that 227 Republicans would co-sponsor a Personhood bill in the House either. We definitely need to re-elect Scott Brown as we we need at least a few Republican voices of common sense and reason in the Senate.

Every four years the two parties draft new platforms ahead of their presidential nominating conventions. These don’t necessarily indicate immediate legislative priorities, but they do indicate general direction. Since the 1980s, the Republican platform has been a test of how far the mainstream of the party is willing to move toward the right-wing fringe. Judging from the draft circulating this week, the answer is, pretty much all the way over.

The draft is more aggressive than any I have seen in its opposition to women’s reproductive rights and gay rights. It calls for a constitutional amendment outlawing all abortions and one denying gay men and lesbians the right to marry.

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On abortion, CNN reported, the draft puts the party squarely in the ranks of the most extreme positions taken by anti-abortion activists. It calls not just for a “human life amendment to the Constitution” but also for legislation “to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.” That would effectively erase any right women have to make their own decisions about their reproductive lives and health – and, depending on how lawmakers phrase the proposed amendment, could threaten even birth control.

This hard right portion of the GOP Platform also threatens in vitro fertilization procedures when three of Romney's sons had children through this procedure. This almost makes you think you are the one going crazy but you cannot make this up. This is how far out of the mainstream this Republican Party is today where the hard right sponsored by the Koch Brothers have taken over the Party.

Now the GOP has the distinction of having the 'Most Conservative Platform in Modern History' which is out of touch with mainstream America who outnumbers the hard right by a lot. Reading this when I cared what happened to the Republican Party would have made my blood boil. In this case, I can truly say that the brand of conservatism I have seen in my adopted state of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and other states has now gone nationwide which is not a good thing for most Americans. Find this narrow minded thinking archaic, out of touch, disgusting, and an insult to the women of America that this group of hard right think they have the right to tell the rest of us how to live and how to think.

Minorities didn't far too well either in the GOP Platform but then Cong Akin thinks the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts should be repealed. Since so many hard right conservatives came to Akin's defense, how many of them agree with Akin on these acts? From what we are seeing in PA, OH, and FL, I would say there are plenty more like Akin in the Republicans Party. With the uproar over Akin on Rape and Abortions, that little detail was missed that he was against those Acts believing they belong in the states not handled by the Federal Government. This attitude left me speechless.

A week from the 2012 Republican National Convention, Republican committee members spent Tuesday articulating and affirming the principles they stand for in a draft of the official party platform. Led by Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) and featuring other Tea Party stars like Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), the committee approved a draft of the platform McDonnell said “will reflect the heart and soul of the Republican Party” and one committee member called “the most conservative platform in modern history.”

Here are some highlights:

NO ABORTION IN CASES OF RAPE OR INCEST. The proposal for a “human life amendment” passed without a hitch — and without any exceptions for rape or incest. The committee didn’t stop there; they also adopted language that would ban drugs that end pregnancy after conception, which could potentially include Plan B, the “morning after pill.”

SALUTE TO MANDATORY ULTRASOUNDS. The GOP officially praises states’ “informed consent” laws that force women to undergo unnecessary procedures, require waiting periods and endure other measures meant to discourage them from getting an abortion. One such law receiving a “salute” was crafted by committee head McDonnell, who passed a notorious mandatory ultrasound requirement after he signed an unsuccessful bill to require an even more invasive transvaginal probe ultrasound during an abortion consultation.

NO LEGAL RECOGNITION OF SAME-SEX COUPLES. The committee embraced extreme anti-gay language, even rejecting a proposal to endorse civil unions for gay couples after vehement objections from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Romney adviser Jim Bopp, who called it a “counterfeit marriage.” The rejection of civil unions, along with the refusal to include a line affirming the legal equality of same-sex couples prompted the organization GOProud to declare, “Those who have engaged in this public platform fight have provided distraction from important issues and damaged Mitt Romney’s campaign.”

REPLICATE ARIZONA-STYLE IMMIGRATION LAWS. Kris Kobach, who wrote the now mostly invalidated immigration laws in Arizona and Alabama, pushed for language calling for a border fence, a national E-Verify system to make it harder for undocumented workers to find employment, the end of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and an end to sanctuary cities. The committee overwhelmingly approved the proposals, as well as a line chastising the Department of Justice to halt the lawsuits against draconian immigration laws in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah: “State efforts to reduce illegal immigration must be encouraged, not attacked.”

AUDIT THE FED. The pet project of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) to audit the Federal Reserve has now been embraced as an official Republican goal. For the first time, the platform calls for an annual audit of the Federal Reserve.

NO WOMEN IN COMBAT. The platform condemns “social experimentation” in the military, which covers everything from the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to allowing officers to wear their uniforms in gay pride events to letting women serve on the front lines.

NO STATEHOOD, MORE GUNS FOR WASHINGTON DC. FRC’s Perkins, who recently blamed President Obama and the Southern Poverty Law Center for the shooting at FRC’s Washington headquarters, requested and received a section specifically urging the DC Council to expand gun rights. The same section also opposes DC statehood, which would allow the District to govern itself and put an end to Congressional attempts to impose abortion bans on DC.

NO NEW TAXES, EXCEPT FOR WAR. The platform calls for a Constitutional amendment requiring a super-majority to approve any tax increase, “with exceptions for only war and national emergencies.” It would also deliberately hobble future Congresses through a cap limiting all government spending to historical average percentage of GDP — “so that future Congresses cannot balance the budget by raising taxes.”

Today's Republican Party does not speak for me with this Platform and what I have been hearing in recent years. The hate that comes out of the conservative pundits and hard right Republicans is not something I want to be associated with. The lies told about this President don't stop and even when you can can prove they are lies so many of the far right won't believe you. With this Platform, I can truthfully saw that the Republican Party has left me and my beliefs which go back to when I was growing up and watching my hero President Eisenhower start the integration of educational institutions. I was so proud of the Republican Party for helping pass the Civil Rights Act. Now I am embarrassed to be a member of the same party with the people who wrote this Platform.

According to Think Progress, “NRA: Practice Range” is billed as a “network of news, laws, facts, knowledge, safety tips, educational materials and online resource” for the organization.The National Rifle Association released a new app on Sunday that includes a gun range equipped with coffin-shaped targets, and the option for players to simulate using a military-grade sniper rifle.

The app includes what it calls “9 true to life firearms,” and allows players to download an MK-11 sniper rifle setting for 99 cents. The rifle can shoot 750 rounds per minute.

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Dems/GOP Fighting -- Will they Finally Work Together for the Country? Will replace this image when they do. (11/07/2012)

Quotes

"We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society, but that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than this." President Barack Obama, Newtown, CT, 12/16/2012

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"I don't think that the way to correct a spin from the left is to try to impart a spin from the right.... [A]n information flow distorted from the right would be just as much a disservice as distortion from the left. What we really should be after... is accurate information. And I don't see what any conservative or anybody else for that matter has to fear from accurate information." M. Stanton Evans

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Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY)

“For heaven’s sake, you have Grover Norquist wandering the earth in his white robes saying that if you raise taxes one penny, he’ll defeat you,” he told CNN back in May. “He can’t murder you. He can’t burn your house. The only thing he can do to you, as an elected official, is defeat you for reelection. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation when we’re in extremity, you shouldn’t even be in Congress.”

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"We are are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation.

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John Stuart Mill was a 19th century political philosopher:

"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it." John Stuart Mill.